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This weekend we return to the Ricoh Arena having gone so close to beating Wasps in the Aviva Premiership semi-final last season. I couldn’t have been prouder or more pleased with the effort we put into that game. We were courageous and worked incredibly hard for each other, only to lose it at the death.

This time we are going to have to make sure we are better.

I think we have made a lot of progress as a team in fits and starts this year and we are still working hard for that complete performance. A trip to Wasps will give us a good indicator of where we are at.

They are probably a bit further along in the development of their team than we are and are probably more stable with the group they have had together for two or three seasons. But we have demonstrated against the very best that we can certainly be as good as them. It is another test on Saturday which will answer some more questions.

What do we need to do to achieve a result against Wasps? We need to limit the opportunities they get. They are a dangerous footie team with an incredible amount of speed and skill in their group.

Like we did in the semi-final, when we get opportunities we have to take them, create scoreboard pressure and put them under pressure to chase the game. They are a difficult side to chase when they are front-runners and they get better and better in that aspect.

It is a great stadium. They get good numbers there but if we can be little bit better than we were in the semi and fix the handful of things that hurt us against Worcester Warriors last week, we should be alright.

What I have been pleased with since returning to the club is the determination and the understanding among the players of what it takes to win games at this level. That has been re-instilled in the group. We are probably a bit more waterproof around our performances and I think we are a little bit harder to break down in certain aspects of our game.

We probably have a better understanding of what makes us work as a footie team than we had previously. It is just a matter of making sure we continue to develop those things and we get the best out of the individuals we have in the environment and try to streamline their skill-sets through what we are trying to do.

If we can continue to do that, and we get a handful of quality bodies back into the group over the next two or three weeks, we can certainly build that towards the back end of the season.